1 am
by joiedevivre2011
Summary: From a tumblr mini-fic prompt thing - things you said at 1am. [two-shot]
1. Chapter 1

From a tumblr prompt mini-fic meme...thing...

 _Things you said at 1am._

* * *

With a quiet tap of her knuckles against the wooden door, Jane hesitantly stepped into the office of the newly appointed Chief Medical Examiner. "Doctor Isles?"

Startled out of her concentration, the seated woman looked up sharply at the woman in the doorway. "Detective Rizzoli," she greeted.

Jane stood there, her hands wringing together, displaying her nervousness.  
A smile tugged at the corner of Maura's mouth as the thought that Jane seemed just as anxious as her crossed her mind. "May I help you?"

Roughly clearing her throat, Jane began, "I wasn't sure if you were planning to be here most of the night, but if you were, I was wondering if you'd like to grab a coffee at the diner down the street?"

With a glance to her large watch, Maura looked back up curiously. "At 12:30am?"

"It's okay if you'd rather not, or if you weren't planning to stay much longer," Jane backtracked. "I figured I'd probably be here awhile. My mind doesn't rest very well when a new case comes in. I thought…" She paused. "Maybe we could talk about the case, just in a different environment?"

Maura hesitated and then laughed nervously, looking down and brushing the back of her hand across her forehead.

Immediately Jane realized she'd made a mistake in extending this invitation. "You know what? It's fine. We can just do it another time. You're probably ready to go home to your boyfriend or husband or dog or something."

"Tortoise," Maura automatically replied, looking up to find a confused expression on the detective's face.

"I'm sorry?"

"I have a tortoise. African spurred. And no significant other. Just Bass and me," the medical examiner said.

"Bass. What, after an old boyfriend?"

Maura smiled. "No, after William Bass, the famous forensic anthropologist who founded the body farm."

Jane's left hand immediately rose and hooked around the back of her neck. "Yeah, yeah, of course." After a moment, she pointed backwards with her right thumb. "We'll just do coffee another time. Or not, if you don't have any interest at all." She began to slowly back through the doorway. "Anyway, I'll leave you to…whatever your plans are."

As the brunette began to turn around completely and leave, Maura quietly called out to her. "Detective, wait."

A hand gripped the doorway and Jane leaned back to look through the doorway, her head and hand the only visible parts of her body. "Yeah?"

"You just rambled a bit there and made several assumptions. You didn't really give me much of a chance to accept or decline your invitation."

"Oh. Right." She stepped back fully into the doorway, but remained silent, swallowing hard.

"I don't drink coffee this time of night, but I suppose I can make an exception. I'll just have mine decaf though."

"I retract my invitation," Jane replied, horrified.

Maura's stomach lurched and she knew the expression on her face showed how much that statement hurt.

At the look on the other woman's face, the detective apologized. "Oh god, I'm sorry. I was just joking. I didn't mean…I just…" She sighed. "Decaf coffee is a sacrilege."

A hesitant smile crossed Maura's face.

"Sorry. I forget that you're new, so you would have no idea how much I joke around, or that I'm a coffee addict," she said. "And I probably shouldn't tell you that since you're a doctor and all, but now I have. Hi. I'm Detective Jane Rizzoli of the Boston Police Department and I have a coffee addiction."

"Well, admission is the first step to recovery," Maura said, trying to hide her smile as she reached for her purse on the floor and rose from her chair.

"I have no desire to recover," Jane replied.

Maura couldn't help but laugh.

* * *

"So do you think the murder weapon is like…a 2 by 4 or something?"

"I don't guess," Maura replied. "I haven't examined the body yet, so I'd prefer not to speculate."

"Wait seriously?" Jane raised an eyebrow and took a sip of her coffee. Her elbows were on the table, the mug cradled between her hands.

"I'm a scientist by nature. I need evidence to support any claim that I make." Maura shrugged lightly as she stared into her coffee cup, swirling around the spoon she'd yet to remove.

"What about people?" Jane asked quietly. "Do you make any claims based on your observations of them?"

Maura's mouth twitched slightly as she met the brunette's curious gaze. "I can make the observations, but I prefer not to claim anything about a person until I am absolutely certain I have enough evidence to support it."

"Hm, okay." The detective paused as she lowered her coffee mug to the table and folded her arms across each other. "Tell me some observations you've made about me."

The other woman blushed and looked down.

"Fine, I'll go first," Jane said. "When you're in control of the situation, talking to your staff or telling us about the forensics you've found, you're confident. You know exactly what you're doing and how to do it, but you're uncomfortable around people in social interactions."

Nervously, Maura dropped her hands to her lap, continuing to look down.

"People call you Queen of the Dead and you pretend like it doesn't bother you, but it does," Jane said. "And for the record, I've nearly bitten off every officer's head who's said that within earshot."

A hard swallow.

"You're clearly a genius. You wear extremely fancy clothes, but personally I don't see how most of them are comfortable. Tonight I learned that you don't have a boyfriend or husband." Jane squinted as she observed Maura across the table. "Based on what I know of your education and work experience, I'd assume you're between the ages of 35 and 40, but probably closer to 35."

Maura breathed in deeply and tears gathered at the corner of her eyes.

"It's also obvious that you're beautiful," Jane said finally, quietly. "And I'm also willing to bet you're on the verge of crying right now."

Maura laughed, almost involuntarily. She swiped her index fingers across her closed eyes, wiping away the beginning pool of tears.

"See?" Jane replied with a sympathetic smile.

Finally the medical examiner looked up, eyes shining brightly with lingering tears.

"Want to know another thing I've learned based on all my observations?" Jane asked, making sure Maura wasn't going to look away.

Maura's lack of response indicated a yes to Jane.

"I think we're gonna be friends."


	2. Chapter 2

I'd never thought I'd end up writing anything else for this, but somebody mentioned something to me the other night and I had something just kinda fall into place in my head. It's all just gone from there. I hope you enjoy this. :)

* * *

 _Things you said at 1am_

Maura stood in the doorway of the squad room and observed the tall, thin woman who had so quickly become her best friend.

Tacked against the evidence board were several pictures and Jane stood there, chewing on her left thumbnail with her right arm folded across her middle, while she stared intently at the photographs before her.

Watching Jane at work over the last several months always fascinated the medical examiner. Jane's intense concentration during a case rivaled her own and Maura loved that about Jane. God did she love that.

"Jane," Maura said quietly.

The unexpected voice startled Jane and her head whipped around toward the squad room entrance. "God, Maura, you scared the shit out of me!"

Brow furrowing, Maura squinted at her friend briefly before she deadpanned, "Do you need a change of underwear?"

Immediately Jane chortled as she turned to face Maura, placing her hands on her hips. "That was a good one."

With a smile, Maura replied, "I'm learning from the best."

The smile was returned. "What's up?"

"I've got the results from the fingerprint analysis," Maura said. "Doesn't match anything in the database."

Jane's shoulders dropped and she groaned, eyes rolling. "Seriously? So I'm back to no leads?" She gritted her teeth briefly. "Dammit!"

Maura gave her a sympathetic smile. When Jane turned and went back to her desk, Maura quickly followed behind. "I'm sorry. I feel like I haven't helped you at all." She perched her right hip against Jane's desk.

Elbows on her desk and head in her hands, Jane simply said, "No, you have, but I just don't know how yet. Everything you do always helps somehow." She sat up and her arms folder over each other on her desk. She looked at her best friend.

"You're going to be here all night now, aren't you?" The dark blonde sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"What else am I supposed to do?" Exasperation filled the question.

"Go home and sleep?" Maura suggested.

Without hesitation, Jane countered, "You know I can't sleep when I get stuck like this."

"You don't even try, Jane." Her expression was a strange mix of concern and annoyance.

"I've been a detective for over 10 years, Maura. I know how my brain works during cases."

Biting the inside of her cheek briefly, Maura quickly considered the potential outcomes of what she was about to say. She decided to say it anyway. "If you'd join me for yoga or meditation, you could help resolve that problem."

The detective's eyes closed and she breathed out harshly through her nose. "Maura." She reopened her eyes to meet her best friend's hazel ones.

Arms unfolded and hands shot up in surrender. "Fine. Then how can I help you right now? Tell me something I can do."

With a push back from her desk, Jane stood and reached for her blazer. As she began putting it on, she said, "Let's go to the diner."

Maura stood up properly and shook her head with a small smile. "What is it with you and that diner in the middle of the night during a tough case?"

Jane bit her lip for not even a second.

Her friend still noticed the hesitation. "What?"

Sheepishly Jane quietly said, "Well, I've always kinda thought that was the night we became friends, so I guess maybe it's like a good luck thing now."

The confession caused Maura's stomach to flutter and she simply smiled. "Am I allowed to get decaf this time?"

Jane smirked. "Only if you don't wanna be friends anymore."

* * *

"So, you didn't find a match in the national database." Jane took a sip of her coffee.

Maura shook her head.

"So the suspect has no prior convictions." She squinted at Maura across the booth, thinking hard. "Which means this is either a first timer or someone who just hasn't gotten caught yet."

With a shrug, Maura took a sip of her peppermint tea, both hands lifting the cup to her lips. "Based on my findings on the body and the evidence we've collected, I'm more inclined to think that it's a first time murder."

"Yeah, yeah, because things were a little sloppy." Jane clenched her jaw. "Which pisses me off because why haven't we found something? What the hell am I missing?"

The questions were rhetorical and Maura knew it. "We'll find something, Jane," she said quietly, setting her cup back down on the table, hands still clutching it.

"I hope so."

Looking across the table from her, the dark honey blonde saw so many things. Where she normally saw confidence and what Jane would describe as _swagger_ , Maura instead saw defeat and doubt, but underneath those lingering auras, Maura saw so much more. After a moment she asked, "Do you remember the conversation we had that night we first had coffee?"

Squinting in concentration, Jane was silent for a moment before she chuckled lowly. "Yeah, actually. We talked about observations about each other and I told you what I'd noticed about you so far."

Maura smiled when Jane's dark eyes met hers again.

A smirk tugged at the corner of the detective's lips. "I made you cry."

The smile turned into chortling.

"But because you're _you_ , you didn't want to tell me yours." The dark-haired brunette couldn't help but smile at the memories. "I'd almost convinced you to tell me when I got a message from Frost because he'd found a lead."

"You solved the case two days later because of that lead." Maura took another sip of her tea and just as the cup left her lips, she added, "I was very happy for you. Proud of you too."

As usual, Jane diverted her gaze from Maura's, not wanting to take the praise she so frequently received, especially from her best friend.

Maura set her teacup down and folded her arms in front of her on the table. "Do you want to know what my observations are about you?"

Leaning back in the booth, the brunette folded her arms across her middle. "Knock yourself out."

The expression confused Maura.

"Yeah, go ahead," Jane clarified.

"When I look at you, I see a brilliant detective, arguably the most brilliant I've ever encountered." Maura could see Jane swallow nervously. "I think you are more dedicated to finding justice than anyone I know."

Jane looked down at her coffee, which was no longer steaming.

"You're a loyal daughter and a protective sister. You love deeply and laugh fully."

Clearing her throat, Jane forced herself to look back up.

"I also see a drop-dead gorgeous woman."

Immediately Jane held her hand up to protest.

"No, you are gorgeous. Just accept it." Maura smiled. "I also see a best friend. _My_ best friend. The only one I've ever had and the only one I ever _want_ to have."

Jane took a deep breath.

"Do you want to know what else I think?" Maura swallowed hard.

"I'm not sure, but I'm betting you're gonna tell me anyway," Jane joked.

Every single day Maura thanked whatever forces existed within the universe for bringing Jane Rizzoli into her life and that was what gave her the courage to continue speaking.

"I think I'm falling in love with you."


End file.
